Deception and fraud has reared its ugly head within the trademark industry. Fraudsters from all over the world are using public trademark information available on the internet to create official-looking documents disguised as invoices or important notifications.
Many companies and their accounts payable departments have become victims of these deceptive practices due to lack of knowledge of what to look for. Not every document that appears to be an invoice should be paid, nor should every official-looking document be taken at face value.
There are four categories of trademark scam artists: masqueraders, misrepresenters, overchargers, and poachers.
Masqueraders produce phony documents from nonexistent trademark organizations that are designed to look like official documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other official trademark organizations. These fraudsters steal trademark logos from official trademark publications, paste the trademarks to their letterheads and send the letters to the applicants urging them to "register" their mark. The fees are usually hefty and there is also no legality in what the victim is paying for.
Misrepresenters present illegitimate information, usually via e-mail, claiming to be an "official" domain registrar that is alerting the applicant that their trademark is being registered in another domain name. The scammers will offer to sell you a list of alternate domains or protest the alleged application for a fee, but no legitimate domain will contact companies as way of helping them protect their property. Foreign law firms may also attempt this scheme urging the applicant to protest the registration of a mark in their country. This inept fraud is rare because the chance of success abroad is unlikely.
Overchargers legitimately charge three or four times the going rate for trademark monitoring. A monitoring service almost always offers legal advice, something that an unsolicited service may not provide. Using established monitoring firms is always a better deal.
Poachers offer legal services to applicants who have received an action or rejection from the trademark office. Their services are legitimate, but companies should be cautious of hiring an attorney that found them in a database. Poachers often will offer their renewal services but the fees typically don't cover any ongoing legal services or representation which can be critical to validation of the registration. It is very important to have policies in place that govern AP on how to handle all trademark payments.
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